Research capacity takes roughly a generation to build and a few years to lose.
Funding cycles, policy priorities and institutional leadership all operate on much shorter horizons than either — which is the structural problem underneath most capacity failures.
What takes a long time
- Training someone to independence — years.
- Training someone who can then supervise — considerably longer.
- Building a research community with critical mass.
- Establishing an area of genuine strength.
- Building institutional processes that function.
- None of these fit inside a typical funding cycle.
What short cycles produce
- Projects that end before capability is established.
- Trained people leaving because no position follows.
- Infrastructure acquired and then unmaintained.
- Priorities changed before anything was built.
- Effort that produces outputs and no capacity.
What protects continuity
- Funding commitments longer than one project.
- Career paths, so trained people have somewhere to go.
- Institutional rather than individual ownership of programmes.
- Documentation, so departures do not remove capability.
- Stable priorities — changing them frequently makes long work irrational to attempt.
Measuring on a long horizon
- Five-year retention of trained researchers.
- Whether an area continues without special funding.
- Whether supervision capacity is growing.
- Whether infrastructure remains operational.
- Annual output figures answer none of these.
Where individuals fit
- Train others as you go, not only after you are established.
- Document so your work survives your departure.
- Build institutional relationships, not only personal ones.
- Support people continuing your work.
- Capacity is the accumulated effect of individual decisions.
Resisting the pressure
- Short-term metrics will always be available and long-term ones will not.
- Report both, and say which is which.
- Protect long work from being repeatedly redirected.
- State plainly when something will take longer than the reporting period.
One thing worth remembering
Capacity takes a generation to build and a few years to lose.
Which means the most consequential decisions in a research system are usually the ones about continuity — and they are made with the least attention, because nothing visible happens when continuity is maintained.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
What takes a long time to build?
Training someone to independence, training someone who can then supervise, building a community with critical mass, establishing genuine strength, and building institutional processes.
What do short funding cycles produce?
Projects ending before capability is established, trained people leaving because no position follows, unmaintained infrastructure, priorities changed before anything was built, and outputs without capacity.
What protects continuity?
Funding commitments longer than one project, career paths for trained people, institutional rather than individual ownership, documentation, and stable priorities.
How should a long horizon be measured?
Five-year retention of trained researchers, whether an area continues without special funding, whether supervision capacity grows, and whether infrastructure remains operational.
Why are continuity decisions so consequential?
Because capacity takes a generation to build and a few years to lose — and continuity decisions get the least attention since nothing visible happens when continuity is maintained.
